In the United States, the 34th Fighter Squadron pilots flying the fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II fighter jet participated in the Bamboo Eagle 24-3 simulated combat exercise. The Bamboo Eagle exercise is widely seen as preparing for potential conflicts in the Pacific region.
The U.S. Air Force announced on August 9th that following the Red Flag exercise held at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada from July 22 to August 2, the 34th Fighter Squadron joined the Bamboo Eagle 24-3 exercise. As part of the Air Force Warfare Center exercises, the aim is to create a “combat representative environment” across much of the eastern Pacific region.
In late January 2024, the U.S. Air Force conducted the Bamboo Eagle exercise for the first time, immediately following the Red Flag 24-1 exercise, incorporating multi-domain elements such as maritime operations and agile combat deployment elements during the exercise. The Bamboo Eagle exercise, lasting about eight days, aims to provide high-level training in dispersed multi-domain settings to maintain and enhance joint forces and coalition capabilities to win in conflicts when necessary.
In addition to simulating air-to-air and air-to-ground combat like in the Red Flag 24-1 exercise, the Bamboo Eagle exercise also included anti-ship and expanded live, virtual, and constructive elements, as well as agile combat deployment and logistical support. The focus of the exercise is to prepare for a large-scale war in the Pacific region.
The Pacific has currently become a hotspot region globally, with Chinese military aircraft and warships frequently harassing airspace and waters near Taiwan, as well as facing off with the Philippine military in the South China Sea. Disputes between China and Japan in the East China Sea also occur frequently.
On Saturday, Philippine Armed Forces Commander Romeo Brawner Jr. strongly condemned the Chinese Air Force for harassing a Philippine aircraft conducting maritime patrol over Scarborough Shoal, calling China’s actions dangerous and provocative.
U.S. intelligence estimates that China has ordered its military to have the ability to reunify Taiwan by 2027. In March, U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall emphasized at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium the pressing challenges the U.S. faces, stressing China.
To address China’s repeated challenges in the Pacific, the U.S. and allied forces are intensifying training and actively preparing for potential conflicts.
Colonel Ian Osterreicher, the commander of the 34th Fighter Squadron, emphasized in an Air Force press release the difference between scripted exercises like Red Flag and the Bamboo Eagle exercise: “Red Flag exercises have scenarios. The schedule is planned out. Different units can sit face-to-face and plan missions together. Bamboo Eagle isn’t like that. There’s no script.”
“It’s important because this is what’s going to happen (in conflict). You go somewhere you’ve never been before, with people you’ve never worked with, and are asked to do things you’ve never done before.”
During the Bamboo Eagle exercise, around 3,000 military personnel from four branches are operating over 150 aircraft at over a dozen locations, forming an independent task force. Pilots may carry out missions, rendezvous with tankers at sea, or “hot pit” refueling at alternate locations before rejoining the fight along with U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs, Air Force F-22s, or Navy EA-18G Growlers.
The press release explained that from a mission planning perspective, dispersed operations are training fighter squadrons to “find solutions in real-time.”
“Over the last twenty years in the Middle East, we have grown accustomed to executing the same missions over and over in a fixed location,” said Osterreicher. “Now, our primary effort set is more distributed, with almost no communication. Flights of thousands of miles. Trusting your tanker to be there supporting you as you press forward. Communicate air-to-air, make it happen.”
The U.S. military believes that conducting training in the eastern Pacific airspace and waters allows operational personnel to train in a realistic combat environment, incorporating maritime domain scenarios. Participating units in the Bamboo Eagle exercise will perform full-spectrum operations from multiple bases in the western U.S., involving distributed command and control, agile logistics, and air-to-air refueling.
During the Bamboo Eagle exercise, the F-35 fighter jets primarily carry out offensive and defensive anti-access/area-denial missions against fourth and fifth-generation aircraft, long-range bombers, and cruise missiles.
“Stealth, lethality, survivability. It (the F-35) excels in all of these areas,” said Osterreicher. “It provides our pilots with situational awareness to get out there.”
The press release stated that these F-35 missions took place over the eastern Pacific, extending westward from the California coast, providing valuable opportunities for flying in ranges usually inaccessible and showcasing the capabilities of the F-35 and the courage of the pilots.
“There’s that moment where you realize the land below disappears. Alone in a single-engine aircraft – overlooking endless gray and white waves,” the press release described.
Captain Spencer Thompson, an F-35 pilot with the 34th Fighter Squadron, shared in the press release, “It’s great training, but absolutely insane. You feel like you’re halfway to Hawaii already.”
The Bamboo Eagle exercise trains young pilots in various tasks from aerial refueling multiple times to managing fuel dynamically for longer flights, to executing tactics correctly in a “mission-saturated environment.”
In March, Jennifer Mcardle, a senior research associate with the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), told Voice of America that the U.S.’s way of war has historically been about projecting power and fighting from sanctuaries, creating a decisive technological advantage over adversaries. “But in a Pacific war, China’s strategy and capabilities could largely render this way of war irrelevant,” she said.
McArdle emphasized that shifting focus from the Middle East to China requires the U.S. military to develop new, creative operational concepts and invest in the most precious asset – U.S. service members – through new rigorous training regimes.
“The U.S. Air Force’s increased emphasis on large-scale exercises, especially in the Pacific region, is a positive development that can serve both training and experimentation purposes while indicating U.S. capabilities and determination to potential adversaries, enhancing deterrence,” she said.
During the Bamboo Eagle exercise, the U.S. Air Force practiced the hub-and-spoke concept and flexible combat deployments. The hub-and-spoke scheme entails breaking down large centralized bases into smaller, more dispersed forward operating bases to increase the difficulty and cost for adversaries to target missile strikes.
In the Bamboo Eagle 24-3 exercise, the 34th Fighter Squadron was assigned to a “spoke” position.
The significance of the Bamboo Eagle exercise lies in employing concepts of distributed control, mission planning, and operations, allowing multiple fighter squadrons to operate independently under the command of a geographically dispersed joint warfare center. Distributed control enables lower-ranking commanders to respond to changes in the operational environment and take advantage of emerging opportunities.
This concept does not diminish the authority of commanders; instead, it diffuses the power across the entire command structure.
In July, the largest international aerial combat training exercise in Australia, Exercise Pitch Black, kicked off in the skies over the Northern Territory, with over 140 aircraft and more than 4,430 military personnel from over 20 countries participating.
U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors and Australian Air Force F-35A jets took part in the “hot pit” refueling exercise, emphasizing rapid refueling in harsh conditions to reduce ground time to about an hour, normally requiring four to six hours. This is part of the Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept adopted by the U.S. and its allies.
Hot pit refueling involves refueling with the engines still running, significantly reducing ground time and increasing flight sorties.
The exercise showcased seamless integration between U.S. and Australian forces and demonstrated their capability to effectively deploy advanced fifth-generation aircraft in remote areas, while highlighting their readiness to rapidly project airpower into the Indo-Pacific region.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command stated, “This interoperability exercise conducted in a challenging location demonstrates seamless force integration and efficient collaboration among allies.”